Mozart’s long-lost piece Allegro in D Major that was discovered in 2018 was finally displayed and premiered by Deutsche’s Grammophon’s DG Stage. Pianist Cho Seong-Jin was the first to play the piece on January 27th, Mozart’s 265th birthday. Cho Seong-Jin stated, “It is a great honour to be invited to give the premiere of a formerly unknown work by Mozart in the city where he was born and where it may have been written.” The announcement of a newly discovered piece by Mozart was exciting news to many classical music fans. Numerous music fans anticipated the world premiere and were amazed that a composition by Mozart has been unearthed in the 21st century.
Many experts claim Allegro in D is from early 1776 which was around the time Mozart was 17 years old. At the age of five, Mozart already started composing many beautiful pieces and performed in two imperial courts by the age of six.
Mozart is well-known for his long symphonies, which everyone would have heard at least once in their lifetime whether it was at a cafe or during music class. Something unique about Allegro in D is that it’s only 94 seconds long which is pretty short compared to all of Mozart’s other pieces which are approximately thirty to forty minutes long.
How Allegro in D fell into the hands of the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation is quite complicated. It was passed down to many people from the composer’s youngest son to amateur musician Aloys Fuchs who accidentally gave away the composition and later fell into the hands of an antiquarian art and book dealer in Vienna in the late 1800s. It was auctioned many times after the dealer’s death between 1900 and 1924. Finally in 2018, a French Dutch engineer who bought the composition at an auction in the late 1920s offered to sell Allegro in D to the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation. Experts from Germany and the U.S. confirmed that the composition was certainly by Mozart.
Although Allegro in D is only 94 seconds long, it clearly expresses Mozart’s style and the trends in techniques and melodies during the classical period. Now that Allegro in D is added to Mozart’s collection of musical works, there is more to study about him and more music to enjoy.
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